SALVATION ARMY.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17609, 11 November 1922, Page 5

SALVATION ARMY.

THE NEW COMMISSIONER. A CIVIC BECEFTION.

The new head of the Salvation Army m New Zealand, Commissioner Hoggard, with Mrs Hoggard, arrived in Christchurch yesterday and were accorded a civic reception by the Mayor (Dr. H. T. J. Thacker) in the City Council Chambers at 11 a.m. The Commissioner and party were escorted to the Council buildings by the massed Army Bands, and a procession of local Siilvatiionists. The Chamber Hall was well filled during the reception, representatives of various reli--Bi°us. organisations being present in addition to many members of the Salvation Army. The Mayor was accompanied by Mrs Thacker. The Mayor said it was a pleasure to him to welcome to "Qur Garden City" Commissioner Hoggard and his wife. There was a time when the Salvation Army was looked upon as a zoo (laughter), but it had become a great force for good in the community. The great principle of the Army was that of self-sacrifice and self-denial, and in their rcigion there was no bigotry intolerance, or coercion. Nobody was considered too hopeless to be helped by the Army. The medical profession had a great admiration for the Army, for the doctors well knew what the Army were doing, especially in the matter of mataanity work. The prison work and boys' training work and the inebriates' reform work n-ere important phases of the onerations of the Salvation Army. Iu the Great. "War the work of the Army was superb, and the "lasses" had displayed a magnificent heroism, carrying out their duties right up to the firing line. The social and rescue work of the Army lasses in the theatrical quarter of London was also admitted to be of high moral value. Itean Harper who was received with applause, said he regarded it as a privilege to be present to assist in welcoming the Commissioner and Mrs Hoggard. H ehad had opportunities of observing the work of the Army in this city and elsewhere, and could testify to the value of that work. The Church of England at Home had always been on terms of close sympathy and friendship with the Salvation Army (applause), and no antagonism evisted except perhaps on tho part of the more narrow and ecclesiastically minded clergymen of the Church of England with whom, he regretted to say he had very little sympat'<y. The Rev. Frank Rule, for the Presbyterian Church, welcomed the Commissioner to the city. Mr A. D. Hassall, for the Methodist Church, said that his church felt a profound admiration tor the work of the Army. Mrs Hoggard, the first to respond, was greeted with prolonged applause. She contrasted the present status and reputation of the Army with ite early persecutions, and said the Army had risen to great strength bv virtue of its many struggles and difficulties. Commissioner Hoggard thanked the Mayor and the gathering for their kind welcome. The -welcome through New Zealand was of a most sincere nature, and with nothing of patronising about it. The Army to-day was a special help to many people in times of trouble 1 in all parts of the world, and deprived. of the Army the world would experience a serious loss. Colonel "Mclnnes thanked the Mayor for his Welcome to the Commissioner, who, h© said,, had been for 42 years an officer of the Araiy and under whose leadership the Army in New Zealand would progress to further effort. Cheers were given for the Mayor and the National Anthem was sung.